The Ark
by FuzyDr4G0NZ
Summary: Earth is gone. Swallowed by the ever rising waters. Unable to do anything but pray humanity builds their last hope. A vessel designed to take the last children of Earth into the stars and start anew. What happens when they discover they are not alone? (No Reapers in this story)
1. Chapter 1

**An idea that came to mind after reading ark by Stephan Baxter. (Awesome book by the way.) It's not going to be very long nor very well written but I hope you can find some enjoyment in it anyway and maybe get someone else's creative juices flowing.**

**I don't own anything.**

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**Prologue**

**2042 A.D**

"Mission control this is Ark One, everything is green and ready to go. Warp drive is primed, just give the word." Major Thomas Davis said through the radio. It would take the signal forty five minuets to reach Earth and another forty five for them to send one back so he leant back in his seat at the helm of the hundred meter long tube that was Ark One, if only for a few minuets before becoming restless. Straining against his harness he looked through the small window in front of him and looked 'up' at Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. He checked the anti-proton collector had successfully delivered the precious fuel that would make this mission possible.

"Smaller than I thought it'd be," Captain Ellen Walters said as she joined him looking through the window.

"We've been here a year and you only just say that _now?_" Tom replied, his Welsh accent broadening in his disbelief at his first officer. "Anyway, you know we can't get any closer, too much radiation floating about."

"Yeah, still though, I just thought it'd be... bigger," she replied. He noticed her Texan accent was still noticeable, more so than his own accent.

"It's three hundred times the size of earth, how much bigger do want to get?" he replied rhetorically. She took the hint and shut up. Together they just stared at the massive planet while they waited for the reply from mission control. Eventually it came.

"_Ark One you have a go. Good luck out there Ark One, and do us all a favour: survive. Gods speed Ark One," _the voice of the mission head, Frederic Peters- the last pre-flood astronaut said. Gunfire and shouting could be heard in the back ground. _Had everything gone to hell down there already? _Everybody knew this was a one way trip. There was no coming back, earth was drowning and there was no way to stop it. The Ark One crew were the last generation of humans to be born on earth. Sure some would survive on old navy vessels and cruise liners and rafts of some sort but eventually they would all crumble and rot, leaving their passengers to drown in a never ending ocean. But until that happened people would fight and kill over the over the remaining high ground. The only places left were the Rockies in Colorado and parts of central Asia, and it wouldn't be long before the last bit of land was swallowed under the oceans.

"Understood mission control. This Ark One signing off." Tom sent back to their distant homeworld. "Attention all crew prepare for warp jump in five minuets." he said into the ships intercom. Just than four more people floated into the cramped closet that was mockingly called a bridge. They were probably the most important crew members at the moment- the engineers and scientists that had created the warp drive, without them FTL would be impossible.

"You ready for this guys?" Ellen questioned as she turned to look back at the four engineers as they strapped themselves into their seats.

"As we'll ever be. I mean if it doesn't work we wouldn't know- we'd be crushed into something smaller than a neutrino," the head engineer said with a slight laugh.

"Thank you for that lovely piece of information Wilson." Tom mumbled as he began to spin up the particle accelerator for the warp drive. "Everybody either in cryo or strapped down?"

"Your welcome Major and yes, everybody is ready. All non-essential personal are in cryo and all essential personal are in their crash couches." Wilson replied.

"Good, lets do this than." Tom said, he put his hand on the sliding accelerator to power up the drive fully, he felt another hand on top of his, looking across he saw it was Ellen, she gave a tentative smile which he returned. Together they pushed it forward, it was all that was needed to launch the ship into warp. Outside space seemed to crumple up in front of them as the warp drive started to accelerate the ship and its own little micro universe through space roughly at a rate of three light years per day. It would take them twenty years to reach what they believed to be the closest habitable planet. twenty years of floating through space, making sure the ship didn't fall apart beneath them. twenty years before they would feel the pull of gravity beneath their feet again. It would take a miracle for them not to kill each other in that time. Tom tried not to think about it.

"Warp bubble is looking good. Nice and stable. I'm going to have to perform a visual inspection of the hull, make sure there isn't any stress fractures." Wilson said, unbuckling himself from his seat.

"Okay, there shouldn't be but go ahead. Better safe than sorry in this thing." Tom replied. If they were going to live in this heap for twenty years they needed to make sure nothing happened to it that would compromise the hull and it's precious cargo. It was going to be a _long _twenty years.

**2067 A.D**

Tom looked around the dark and surprisingly open room that the crew had come to call the cupola, from here the astronomers and other scientists looked at all the information from the surrounding stars, and most importantly their destination. Catherine Jenkins was their lead astrologist and astronomer and the only other person in the room. Until they landed and started to set up a viable colony he was in charge, of course there was a council of sorts where all the different department heads had their say in things but until they were safe on a planet, he was in charge, and ultimately what he said was almost law. He had his council to keep him grounded so to speak. To make sure he was thinking about everyone and not himself. To keep him humble.

"Ah, Major, took your time I see." Catherine said as he pulled himself into a T-stool next her.

"Sorry, I just wanted to finish making sure all of today's jobs were done." Tom replied. Everyone on the ship had a set of jobs to do to keep the ship running. Even though he was the temporary leader he still had menial tasks to complete.

"Yes well, as our illustrious leader you have the privilege of being the first person, other than myself of course, to see our new home?" she said.

"You can see it?" he asked.

"Yep, the sight is six years old but its the first picture we have of it." she said, if he were to guess, this was about as excited as the African-American astrologist got, and that was just a slight shake in her right leg and a slightly higher pitched tone of voice.

"How?" Tom questioned.

"Using the remote telescopes and the ones on the Ark itself, we point them ahead of us and adjust for the crumpling effect by following the original path of the light, we also have to adjust for the blue shift at the edge of the warp bubble." she replied. Of course after so long he should have known that but things like astrology was never his strong suit.

"Okay, go ahead. Show me." The second he said that she tapped a button on her laptop and a slightly blurry picture of a planet popped up on her screen. It was probably the most beautiful thing he'd seen since leaving Earth. The planet was covered in a steel coloured ocean with a brown and red coloured continent visible. A rough looking mountain range stood tall in a diagonal line through the continent.

"Spectrograph analysis shows it has a viable atmosphere, it's seasonal tilt seems stable as well. It's perfect for us. I guess our luck is finally coming through." she said but Tom paid her no mind, he just continued to look at the planet that would be their home in just two more years. Suddenly the future didn't seem so bleak.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1**

**2069 A.D**

It had been two years since Catherine had first brought the planet to life with the first pictures, but it was quickly approaching the end of their twenty year journey.

Twenty years in a space was a long time. Twenty years stuck inside a giant tin can was even longer. Twenty years and the wounds from leaving earth and all the people on it to drown seemed to just get larger and larger. Twenty years stuck with the same people had caused fights and even a murder attempt. But they couldn't afford to lose somebody for any reason. They'd already lost three people from the eighty that stayed awake, one adult and two shipborn children to a fire caused by the negligence of some of the crew. Children that were growing up in a space ship, never having touched real ground beneath their feet. Some of the older ones, seventeen and eighteen year old children that couldn't _walk._

"Dad, I want to sit with you and mum," Tom's own five year old son, Michael, floated in front of his. All the shipborn children were naturals in zero-g, they were born in it, they didn't know any different.

"No, now go and strap yourself in your chair." Tom replied sternly as he moved his way up the fireman's pole that ran through the centre of the hull. Each deck was accessible from the pole. Each deck was just a mesh metal floor that had been welded into place, cabins were separated by thin sheets created from the crash couches they had used at launch. Decks 11 & 12 was where the cryo bay and hydroponic bay was while deck 10 was a communal area used by people so they could eat and talk or play in the children's case, although Tom knew they had started using the fireman's pole in their latest game- seeing how far down and how quickly they could do it before grabbing the pole. One of the Doctors had put up a net at deck 10 to stop the kids from getting into the sensitive area's of the ship.

"But I want to see watch." little Michael whined.

"No! It's not a place for children, now go strap in, the declaration might cause you to fly into a wall and I don't want you to become a pancake." Tom replied as he continued to pull himself up the pole. At deck four he grabbed Michael who was still whining and had to strap him in.

"Hey Doc, keep an eye on junior. He might try and make an escape attempt." Tom said as he buckled the struggling child into a seat next to the doctor.

"Will do Tom, come on sport. It'll be fun I promise." Doctor Witherbee said to distract the child. Tom gave a silent thank you as he slipped away to the bridge. As he pulled himself into the same seat he had sat in as they left their homeworld and home system, he let out a sigh. Ellen gave him questioning glance but Tom ignored it and started running through the ships systems, making sure it was already for deceleration. They didn't know what would happen when the warp bubble collapsed, they didn't have time to test it back at Earth and neither could they waste the fuel to test it on the way. Tom rested his hand on the same control that had pushed them into warp all those years ago, and just like than Ellen placed her hand on top of his. They shared a smile as they began to pull it back.

"Coming out of warp in three... two... one..." The space in front of the Ark suddenly snapped back into a flat infinite sheet, rather than the crumpled blanket it had appeared as for twenty years. Finally, the last hope of humanity reached it's destination.

XX

**Asari Colony- Alticia**

**2156 C.E**

Guarding a colony as it was being constructed was one of the most important jobs you could receive. It was when a colony was most vulnerable. And right now Alticia was very vulnerable. Construction only began months back on the start of the first settlements and already millions of credits had been spent. It it would be years until the colony was ready for a large population and had its own defences but until than it was up which ever fleet was assigned to protect it.

At least that's what Matriarch Lydia told herself constantly ever since being placed on this assignment. She may be an Asari- a race known for patience, but that didn't make the assignment any less tedious. No one attacked a Council race's colony, no one dared. Event he Batarian pirate and slave rings in the Terminus systems wouldn't attack. At least that's what she thought.

"Ma'am, Frigate patrols picked up an FTL anomaly heading towards the colony," one of the sensor comm operators called out.

"What kind of anomaly?" she questioned.

"Unknown, it's small, very small, scanners picked it up with blind luck but it's heading straight for the colony," the operator replied.

"Have all ship's form up on the _Athame's Touch. _Power up the barriers but hold off on weapons for now." Lydia ordered. Immediately the bridge of the Dreadnought burst into action as the crew followed their orders. A screen near Lydia's position came to life and showed the predicted path of the anomaly, it might be nothing, something completely harmless. Or it could be something that would destroy the colony, whatever it was it was moving at FTL speeds without the use of mass effect fields that much was obvious.

When the anomaly stopped, the view was unexpected. It appeared with a flash and slight distortion of space around it, and then suddenly it looked like it was reversing along its previous trajectory while still occupying the same spot. Thinking back to her early days in school she realised the light from the ship, which was the anomaly, was only just reaching local space, making it look like it was receding and not staying still. Pulling up a picture of the strange alien vessel- it was shaped like a giant tube with a large ring that was slowly pulsating, slower and slower until it stopped. In a way, the ship resembled a giant wheel. The ring was too thin, too small to be inhabited, which left only the thick, dirty white and black tube in the centre, on that Lydia could see multiple instruments sticking out of the body. There was a section that stuck out from the rest about halfway up, it was a hexagonal dome with dark windows. Small artificial lights were dotted about almost haphazardly. The frigate sized craft rotated using old chemical rockets, turning to face the colony and the fleet.

"By the Goddess," Lydia whispered, the sentiment was shared with most of the crew who had seen the anomaly. How? How did a frigate sized craft collapse itself into something smaller than the diameter of a neutrino? What type of FTL drive was that? How did it work? So many questions raced through the Matriarchs mind.

"All ships stand down. Stand down!" Lydia ordered, while no ship under her command had done anything yet it didn't mean they weren't going to. "Send a message to the Council, we have first contact." The words seemed hollow and automatic, her body and mouth were working on centuries of programmed autopilot.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 2**

**2069**

"Shit..." Tom whispered as he rotated the Ark to face their new home, only to find an alien fleet. An _alien_ fleet. Something they hadn't expected at all. Reacting on instinct he unstrapped himself, he could hear the cheers of joy as the crew celebrated arriving at their new home. He ignored their celebration. He turned to Ellen, her face still glued to the sight in front of them.

"Start waking up Doctor Bentolli, we'll need her." he said to her, snapping her out if the trance. "All Military personal suit up and report to the armoury." Tom called into the inter comm, the cheering soon died down. Pulling himself out of his seat he started to move out of the bridge he noticed Ellen was pulling herself out of her seat.

"Stay here Ellen, keep an eye on the ship." He ordered, she hesitated slightly but pushed herself back into her seat.

"Just be careful." she said. Tom nodded and started to pull him self down towards the cryo bay. There was a reason he needed doctor Bentolli, he needed her to be allowed access to the arms locker. It was a way to make sure no one decided to pull a gun on the crew, not even him. As he grabbed the fireman's pole he started to pull himself downwards, he could see the rest of his men and women doing the same. Moving past deck four he heard Michael shout out for him.

"Dad!" Michael's little voice carried in the almost panicked whispers of the crew.

"Stay there Michael, do not move!" Tom shouted, he didn't like shouting at his son but sometimes it was necessary. Tom carried on down. Performing a flip so his feet were on the deck of level 10 he moved towards a ladder down for the cryo bay and where the arms locker was. When he entered the sterile cryo bay he saw doctor Bentolli was already awake and moving, coughing up some of the stuff they had injected her with before she went under.

"What's going on?" She asked, her accent was Italian-American, maybe from the New York area.

"We have a problem. We need access to the arms locker." Tom said quickly. Helping the older woman up. She was now one of the youngest in the crew, baring the shipborn children, she wasn't even thirty yet, her age slowed by the cryo sleep. Whereas eighty of them had age twenty years, all of them in their early forties now, Tom included.

"What? Why?" The doctor questioned as she struggled in the zero-g, she wasn't used to the lack of gravity, she had been asleep since before they left earth.

"We have an alien fleet right in front of us. Between us and our planet." Tom replied as he helped her stabilise herself.

"What? Alien? Are you sure? Have they tried anything yet?" she questioned.

"Yes aliens. Of course I'm fucking sure, what else would it be? And no, they haven't but until we are on that planet it is my duty to make sure we get there, even if I have to shoot my way though a bunch of aliens to do it. God I hope I don't have to do that." Tom said, already moving to the armoury.

"Okay, but don't go shooting everything. We may be able to work out some sort of understanding with them and get passage to the planet." Bentolli said as she struggled to pull herself along next to Tom.

"I wouldn't count on it doc, the flagship at the centre was huge. Bigger than anything humans ever constructed. My guess is about eight hundred meters to click long. If that ship has any weapons we are fucked." Tom said. As he reached the armoury he saw the eighteen other soldiers, some of the best spec-ops guys from around the world before it flooded. They were putting on fully enclosed plated armour- a prototype created just for this mission.

"Major, what's going on?" One of the American Navy seal's asked. When Tom had been chosen to lead he was initially met with resentment and a bit of hostility. But after twenty years they'd come to accept it.

"Just a precaution. There is an alien fleet right in front of us, between us and a planet. The Doctor here is going to try and talk to them, hopefully reach some sort of understanding and secure us passage to Earth II. If they're hostile, well to be honest, we're screwed. They're bigger than us and more than likely better armed. We will be acting as escorts just in case they come here or we go there. Either way, we're all that's left of our people. We _must_ reach that planet. If not, get them to take us to a new one." Tom said, he had started to put his own armour on. It felt rigid, almost like and EVA suit, but the stiffness soon gave way to a surprising amount of flexibility. The soldiers said nothing. They just took it in and prepared.

Before putting his helmet on and sealing himself in the armour he went over to the arms locker where doctor Bentolli was waiting. Giving her a nod they entered their password numbers and inserted their keys and twisted. The locker had been sealed since earth, eight years ago, so it was the only stuff in the ship that smelt new any more. It reminded them all of the home they had left to drown. He passed out the compact sub-machine guns and ammo, specialised rounds that was designed to shatter on impact so as to avoid puncturing the hull. Although some thought that if the situation had deteriorated to a point where firearms were needed than a hole in the hull was the least of their worries.

"Bridge is right at the top of the ship doc." Tom said, motioning to top of the ship, hinting the doctor should go. "Everybody report to your stations, make sure everybody stays strapped in. Levi, go up to the cupola, I want eyes on them at all time. No distractions." Tom ordered. Everybody pulled themselves to their stations with as much grace as they could in the armoured suits. He joined Bentolli back on the bridge where they waited for the aliens to make the first move. After two days they did, after a ship larger than anything humans had seen constructed.

XX

**Destiny Ascension**

**2156 C.E**

Lydia had expected the Council to send some sort of envoy, not bring the _Destiny Ascension_ and proceed with this themselves. In the two days since the alien ship arrived it had done nothing, no attempt at contact, no weapons were activated, only some basic scans from the ship were detected and most of them were aimed at the fleet not the colony. Things had been tense the last few days. She walked across the bridge of the _Ascension _and greeted the three councillors.

"Greetings councillors, I had not expected you to come see to this personally." Lydia said respectfully.

"Matriarch Lydia, thank you for the welcome. We decided this was a sensitive matter, a new race with an unknown FTL capability? We needed to make sure first contact went smoothly." the Asari council woman responded. The other two councillors nodded in agreement.

"What has happened since you reported the ship?" the Turian councillor asked. He didn't say it but he was asking if it had posed any form of threat, made anything that could be considered hostile.

"Nothing, since it turned to face us, it's done nothing. Just sat there. There are life forms aboard, we know that much, but the ship itself is no threat." Lydia replied.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, there are no weapon emplacements anywhere on that ship. If there was my scanners would have picked them up." Lydia said, assuring the councillors the unknown ship was no threat. She noticed the councillors had a picture of the ship on the main view screen. Walking up to it she began a brief summery of what they knew so far.

"What we know so far is fairly limited. We know there are just under ninety beings on the vessel. It's a rather primitive craft, it doesn't seem to have any form of artificial gravity or shields. There are no mass effect fields of any sort, no trace of element zero.

"If you look here you can see some sort of emblem on the raft, maybe a name, maybe a symbol for something, we don't know." she pointed to the worn black marks on the hull next to a coloured mark of some sort.

"Most of it's faded now, mostly from time and radiation, some pitting in the hull indicates it has been struck by micrometeorites at multiple points. The ship is constructed from basic metals, not really suitable for a long time in space. It's not very large, 230 meters long and a little over fifteen meters across, hardly suitable for the ninety beings on board. The ring that surrounds the ship, we thinks is part of their unknown FTL drive, what it does or how it works, we don't know yet. From the way the ship looks, I would have said it was constructed hastily, or is older than we suspect and has had some sort of patchwork repairs done to it." Lydia finished.

"Thank you Matriarch Lydia. We will take it from here. Return to your ship and move your fleet away. It'll show them we mean them no harm, and hopefully give them the confidence to initiate contact." the Asari council woman said.

Lydia bowed and left. Soon after arriving back aboard the _Athame's Touch_ the fleet moved away, some ships returned back to their patrols while others just hung back at what was considered a 'safe' distance.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N; Here we go. The last chapter in this short story, there will be an epilogue which deals with some of the questions I'm sure you'll have with the ending of this chapter. **

**parthaker; In response to your review I can say that I have not read those books, but I have spoken to my dad about it and hopefully he'll buy them for me. I would do it myself but I don't have much money at the moment. **

**Leinad; With ninety people humanity could easily rebuild, it would take time but we could manage it. It's all about genetic diversity with that few people, but around eighty people is thought to be the minimum number we could get away with regarding it, any fewer and we'd all become inbreds. It's a fascinating thing to read about in my opinion. **

**As I said, this is the last proper chapter for the story. I did mention in the first chapter that it'd be a short story and it's really only dealing with what would happen if humanity fled Earth and after their journey they encountered an alien race, or in this case the Mass Effect Species. If someone would like to continue with the story just ask and mention this little piece of work.**

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**Chapter 3**

**2069**

"Look at the size of that thing! It's huge, you could fit thousands of people in it!" Ellen said in awe as the massive new alien ship joined the fleet.

"It must be nice to have thousands of people to crew that thing." Wilson commented. It was true, everyone was thinking it. There were only a little over a hundred humans left in the galaxy. And they were trapped in an alien system, surrounded by an alien fleet. It took nearly three hours after the new ship arrived that things started to happen. First the fleet of alien ships backed off, some moving to patrols beyond the Ark's sensor range. The only one left visible to the naked eye was the largest of them all, the one that arrived two day's after the Ark did.

"Their sending something over, I dunno, I think it might be some sort of video file. I'm having the computers sort it out." Ellen said as an instrument on her side of the bridge beeped. Suddenly one of the screens next to Tom snapped to life. It showed a basic diagram of the Ark and the monster alien ship. A dotted line ran between the two ships with a shuttle moving between them. The aliens were letting them decide whether the Ark crew wanted to go to the alien ship or if they wanted the aliens to come to them. The debate over what to do was tense, but ultimately Tom and Bentolli agreed they should go over to the alien ship, simply because the Ark didn't have the facilities for this, nor did they want to risk the fragile ship that had been their home for twenty years.

"Mum, dad? What's going on?" Tom and Ellen turned to face their oldest child. Fifteen year old Helen Davis. She was slim and but short compared to her parents.

"Helen, go back to your seat." Tom all but ordered, he turned back to the controls, he had more important things to do than explain this to Helen, he would, later, just not now.

"What's that?" Helen asked, looking at the alien ship. It was close enough to be visible without a telescope but far enough away so it looked small in the view screen. It was neither Tom nor Ellen who answered, but doctor Bentolli.

"An alien ship. People, with technology far beyond our own." she said.

"What's an alien?" Helen asked, unfamiliar with the word.

"A different race. Evolved on a different planet from us, under a different star in a different part of the galaxy." Wilson replied for her. Helen's mouth formed an 'O' shape as she began to realise the implications.

"Will they help us?" she asked.

"That's what we're going to find out." Ellen replied, she had turned back to her display and was trying to send a message back, showing the aliens the Ark crew would send somebody over. When the bridge was occupied by the six people meant to sit in it, it was cramped. Now with two people extra, it was full.

"Okay, sending the reply. But before I do, when are we going to do this?" Ellen asked. Tom and Bentolli looked at each other and seemed to have a silent conversation.

"Three hours. Gives them plenty of time to get ready and gives us time to tell the crew." Bentolli said.

"Who's going?" Wilson asked, it was a valid point. Either Bentolli or Tom and two guards. But which one of them would it be? Bentolli was the obvious first choice due to her more political background but Tom was more experienced with the Ark and the crew.

"Personally I think Tom should go, he's got the military experience as well to back him up if things go wrong." Wilson said offhandedly. Almost like it was a joke to him. Which it probably was. Eventually they decided on Tom going for now and doctor Bentolli would handle any further interactions with the aliens. Now all they had to do was tell the crew.

Gathering everybody in the communal area on deck ten was only part of the issue, they had to remove the floor of the two decks above it as well to fit everybody in. Looking up Tom saw Ellen with Helen and Michael floating by one of the ladders on the side of the hull. A hushed whisper was passing through the crowd and neither Tom nor Bentolli hushed them. They waited for the whispers to die down before beginning.

"I'm sure you're wondering why we haven't said anything about Earth II yet, why we haven't shown you what your new home looks like." Tom began. "You will all see Earth II, you'll see your new home. But the truth is we've encountered a problem we didn't expect. Something we were told was impossible. We encountered an alien fleet." Tom said, he let the words hang in the air as the crew began to understand.

"Myself and two others will be going to the alien flagship to try and communicate with them and get us passage to Earth II. Or maybe another planet, if they could take us, if they're willing. I don't know how long it'll take, I don't know if I'll succeed. I might not. They have warships, some of them are a hell of a lot bigger than us. I'm going to try and make sure they point their weapons somewhere else and not at us."

"When are you going?" Someone asked. It was a good question, a fair question.

"In one hour, that's when." Tom replied. He looked around the crowd, they were pale and thin, their muscle's had slowly deteriorated over twenty years despite constant exercise. He wasn't sure if they'd be able to walk properly when they made landfall, he knew the children wouldn't. He saw worried looks on their faces, some of the children looked excited, others looked bored.

"What about Earth?" Another voice rung out. Tom looked at person, one of the crew responsible for the plumbing.

"What about it? Earth drowned years ago. There's nothing left. But I will ask them, ask them to look for survivors still there. Maybe bulk up our numbers a bit. And maybe after some time they may take us there, allow us to see our homeworld, allow our children to see the world they were designed to inhabit. The world we were all born on." Tom replied. He had planned on asking, asking the aliens to look for survivors on Earth. He just hoped there was still someone alive back home.

There were more questions, more answers. Some anger at the aliens for blocking their path, some anger at Tom for waiting so long to tell them.

"What would you have me do? I let you go about your business like it was a normal day, it meant that if the aliens decided to blow us out the sky you wouldn't have died in fear of what they might have done. No, I let you think it was all normal." Tom replied to the anger directed at him. Soon enough, too soon for his liking, he moved to one of the glider shuttles with two soldiers, Levi and the Navy seal that had asked what they were doing when they first suited up two days ago, Mel Jones. Levi sat down in the pilots seat with Tom in the co-pilots seat, leaving Mel to pick one of the thirty other seats in the back.

"You know we're gonna have fun getting this thing out of the alien hanger right?" Levi commented. He was right, the shuttles were a one use only design meant to transport people down to the surface of Earth II, used as a shuttle between two ships.

"Yep, but at least we'll be the first humans to meet some aliens." Tom replied. Pulling away from the Ark Tom felt his stomach clench, it could very well be the last time he saw it, the last time he saw Ellen, Helen and Michael. As the shuttle got closer to the alien ship they realised just how much bigger it was compared to them.

"They're sending coordinates to dock," Levi said. Tom had a look at them, they pointed them towards a hanger that looked like it might only just fit the shuttle in. as they drew closer they could see it was open with a blue field over the opening and they could see small figures moving about inside, at least they looked somewhat human, it would make things slightly easier. Tom sighed as he settled in for the hour long trip to the alien ship.

XX

**Destiny Ascension**

**2156 C.E**

The shuttle was easily large enough to hold twenty, maybe thirty people if they were Asari or Turian sized. It filled the largest hanger with ease, it's black underside split open to reveal a set of skids while powerful, if small, chemical thrusters burnt to stabilise the delta wing shaped shuttle. The thrusters left scorch marks on the pristine hanger floor, covering it with a thick layer of black soot. The shuttle was rather inelegant in it's final touchdown, it just turned off it's engines two or three meters above the deck and letting the artificial gravity bring it to the down, bouncing on hydraulic suspension in the skids before it finally settled on the deck with a slight pneumatic hiss.

"Interesting. Able to produce viable non-Mass Effect based FTL yet unable to produce simple landing craft. Very interesting." The Salarian Councillor, Valern, said. Sparatus, the Turian Councillor nodded in agreement. Before Tevos could say anything however a ramp lowered from the bottom of the shuttle. The ramp was corrugated but plain, no decoration at all. A recurring feature with these people Tevos noted. Was it something in their nature or was there other reasons everything seemed bare and practical?

Three figures appeared at the top of the ramp, they wore full body vacuum suits with armour plates. Their helmets seemed be some sort of mask around where a nose and mouth were located on an Asari's head while the eyes were protected by a visor built into a helmet. It looked rather...odd. They walked down the ramp, slowly, carefully. Their movements were precise and calculated. It looked like they were struggling to walk at all. Carefully two Asari maidens approached, their hands and arms visible to show they were unarmed, unlike the three aliens which carried compact black guns.

The lead alien shook his head and held out a hand, a motion for the maidens to stop. They weren't needed it seemed. After reaching the three Council members, one of the aliens said something in it's own language. A few seconds later the lead one reached up and pulled at the mask and helmet, the alien was incredibly pale, it almost looked sick. Tevos doubted that this was a specimen in prime condition amongst its species. It drew in a large breath, a look of happiness passed briefly on its face. It was an emotion everyone saw, not just her. He looked uneasy, like he'd been stood up for too long. What shocked the crew the most was despite how ill it looked the aliens looked similar, like pale, tall, well built Asari. Tevos decided to move the 'meeting' to a more suitable location, she just hoped that the aliens would be okay with it.

XX

**Alien Flagship-2069**

Tom breathed heavily, he wasn't used to walking around this much any more. Back in the old days, back when they were still on Earth he could run for miles but now he was out of breath just from walking a few dozen meters. Levi had given the all clear on the suitability of the air, the mixture was slightly off but it was okay, it was breathable.

"I hope they're leading us somewhere so we can sit down, my legs feel like shit already." Mel said.

"Well, it's either that or they're going to kill us and eat for dinner. Although I don't think we'll taste too good." Levi replied quietly.

"Speak for yourselves boys, I am one hundred percent Welsh meat, I always taste good." Tom replied.

"Yeah, yeah. Funny, Tom. You probably taste worse than us, I like to think we taste of chicken. And I like chicken." Mel retorted.

"Yeah? Well you look like one too." Tom said causing Levi to burst out laughing and Mel to turn red. The aliens turned to face them with questioning looks.

"Real fucking funny." Mel grumbled.

"Oh shit man, don't do that again, I'm struggling to walk enough as it is. You keep making me laugh I'll probably keel over and not get back up again." Levi said. Agreeing the three men shut up, keeping their thoughts silent. Levi's laughter had caused some looks amongst the aliens. The tall bird like one didn't seem too happy about it, or maybe that was just the way they were, the three humans didn't know.

Soon enough they came to a room where they could sit down and enact the first talks between humanity, or what was left of it, and the alien conglomerate.

"You know three aliens leading their races reminds of a game my father and I played, can't remember it now, only that it was created before the flood and when we still thought all of humanity would make it into the stars, not just a few survivors." Tom said, Mel nodded his head.

"Yep, I know which game your on about. Ah the amount of time a wasted on games like that when I was a kid."

The lead alien sat down opposite Tom, the table was big enough for them to all sit down at but if Tom were to reach out he could easily touch the alien, not that he really wanted to. The strange blue alien said something, her voice was softer than the her bird like counterpart. She reached out with both hand and rested them in the middle of the table, at first Tom did nothing but the lizard like alien motioned for him to do the same.

"Guess mister Lizard wants you to touch the pretty blue lady Tom, I promise not to tell Ellen." Mel joked.

"Shut up you thick headed divot." Tom snorted before slowly reaching out with his hands, hesitantly he grabbed her hands gently, they were soft and warm, the texture was a complete contrast to his rough calloused hands. The blue alien said something else and every nerve in his body seemed to fire up, causing his hands to clench around hers so hard his knuckles turned white and a slight crunching could be heard.

"Guess he still has some muscle left." Mel whispered over at Levi who said nothing but nodded.

_Memories flew by, he could see them all, running around his mothers feet as a child, school, sports day's. Rugby matches, both playing and watching with his dad at the Millennium Stadium. His first broken bone. His little brother being born, how jealous he'd felt at the time. His baby sister being born._

"_Son, I know you don't exactly agree with everything I do but I'm doing this because it'll be for the best. I'm sending you off to Military school. You'll be staying there most of the year but we'll still see you at holidays." Tom watched as the memory flew by. He had been twelve and just about to enter secondary school when his dad had told him that. Ever since then Tom had been apart of the British Military. He didn't have to join once he was finished but he did anyway. _

_He watched his first kiss again with a girl whose name he couldn't remember, she was probably dead now anyway. Sneaking out of the school one night, getting caught sneaking back in and the verbal bashing he'd gotten that night. He'd nearly been expelled but in the end he'd gotten suspended for two weeks. His father face in the crowd during parade, how proud he looked, how proud Tom felt. Being told he was going to Sandhurst Academy to become an Officer. _

_More memories flew by, entire years gone again in seconds and before he knew it he was in the briefing about the flood. When he was told about everything. How the sea would continue to rise until there was no more land left and than how the Colonel had told him because of his genes he had been selected to be a part of The Ark, and if he accepted than he would be leaving his family behind on Earth. Tom didn't hesitate, he had abandoned his family, his mother and father and brother and sister just on the off chance that The Ark might work and that he'd be going off into space to find a new planet to live on, in the name of humanity. _

"_Incredible." Tom turned to see the blue lady next to him, it was a strange sensation to stand apart from your memories and view them from an outside perspective. _

"_I can understand you." Tom said, unsure of what else to say. "Does looking at my memories come as a normal first contact thing or am I just special?"_

"_I apologise. The meld was only meant so I could gain some information on how to communicate with you. You brought us here." The alien replied._

"_Oh, well, now you know why we're here. Because twenty years ago my world drowned. The people on the Ark are all that's left of my people." Tom said carefully._

"_I am aware of that now. I will speak to my compatriots after we finish the meld but that planet his an Asari Colony so ultimately it would be up to the Matriarchs on Thessia, my peoples homeworld, if you could settle on the planet." The alien said. The memories of the last twenty years flew by, the alien saw how they'd been living. Floating around because the engineers didn't have time to install a spinning section anywhere, how they had nearly lost the ship when a fire broke out and how an entire generation of children had been born, unable to walk or even talk in the same manner. _

Before he knew it everything was receding, flying away from him and than he was back in the room with the aliens.

"Jeez, that was weird." Tom said.

"Ya think? We had to twiddle out thumbs and have a staring contest with the aliens across the board. What happened Tom?" Mel asked.

"Something good, I think." Tom replied, shaking his head to clear the dizziness.

"I dunno man, you kind of just spaced out on us for a moment there." Levi said, resting a hand on Toms back.

"Yeah well having someone in your head requires a lot of attention it turns out." Tom said looking at the two other men to gouge their reactions.

"Wait, what?"

"I believe he means me. I simply initiated a meld between our two minds to allow myself an understanding between our two people." The blue lady from across the table said in near perfect English. "I am Councillor Tevos, with me is councillors Sparatus and Valern, we are the leaders of a multi-species government that provides order, law and protection for many species throughout the galaxy." The recently named lady said.

"Cool." Levi chocked out with a rapid nodding of his head.

"Right, it's a pleasure councillors, I'm Tom Davis, Major Tom Davis. I'm currently responsible for the Ark and the well-being of everyone on board. With me is Lieutenants Levi Fritz and Mel Harper." Tom said. "And I hope you'll pardon me for being painfully blunt but your fleet hovering above _our_ planet. We kind of _need_ that planet and your people are all over it."

"With all due respect Major this planet is an Asari colony, what makes you believe you have more of a claim to it than you do?"

"Well, you saw my memories, out of context as they were, you still saw them. You know that we endured a twenty year journey with no gravity and risked everything to make it to this planet and I also know that you are perfectly capable of simply moving the few small buildings you have set up down there and taking them some place else. We can't leave this system on our own power, never mind moving to another star system which would take years in itself." Tom said in bitter tone.

"I am aware of what your people endured but the Matriarchs on Thessia would not support the decision to stop the development of the colony, no matter the reason as it would cost far too much." Tevos said in a more reasonable tone.

"Are you fucking kidding me? You'll doom an entire species just because 'it's too expensive?' You're just as pathetic as the bureaucratic ass holes we left to drown on Earth." Mel exclaimed angrily, slamming his fist against the table. His out burst had caught the other two councillors by surprise as they jumped back ever so slightly.

"Mel's right. It is pathetic, but surely an advanced civilisation like yourselves would be able to help in some form? I mean if your leaders are even remotely concerned about their public image as much as our politicians were than just appeal to their ego; it can't be that hard, just say how much the galaxy would love them and see how kind they are for giving up a colony to a race whose final survivors are fleeing their homeworld and are in desperate need of a planet to settle on." Tom pleaded, he hated the thought of begging, especially to an alien but he would do whatever was necessary to make sure humanity survived, even if it meant kissing blue alien ass.

"While that is not a very... elegant way of putting it, your idea might work, but if it should fail and the Thessian Government decided not to allow you settle on the colony? What shall you do than?"

"If that's the case I hope you can give us a lift to the next habitable planet because I don't think anyone of us wants to spend another twenty years cooped up in that metal death trap, even if we could leave the system." Tom said earnestly.

"I see." Tevos said before turning to her fellow councillors and speaking to them in her own language which was understood clearly by the two other aliens. After some talking between them Tevos turned back to the three humans.

"Councillor Sparatus and Valern extend their condolences for the loss of your homeworld but they are curious as to what caused this 'flooding' that destroyed it." Tevos said.

"I don't know much really, I never really looked into it, no one really did as we were all too busy moving up to higher and higher land. But from what I understand the sea levels rose due to the melting of the Ice caps in the polar regions along with large underwater earthquakes opened up some very large underground water reservoirs, as I said though I'm not a hundred per cent sure what exactly caused it, only how to escape it." Tom replied, it had started before he was born, by the time he was on his first deployment the United Kingdom had been swallowed by the oceans.

Tevos relayed the information to her fellows and carried on with speaking to Tom, Mel and Levi. She asked them about what humans were like before the flood and the Ark project. The lizard alien, Valern was fascinated with the warp drive which Mel was more than happy to talk about. Apparently Salarian's had had never managed to create a working drive like the one on the Ark.

"Meh, it took a lot of hope, determination and desperation to build it really. It was our only feasible hope of getting somewhere quick really, it requires a lot of power, hence the anti-matter reactor we all but bolted onto the Ark." Mel explained.

"That is incredible, despite the primitive construction the fact that your people still managed to create a ship capable of FTL travel while your world drowned is a feat that is unheard of in the galaxy." Tevos said.

"Well, it was bound to happen eventually really." Levi said.

"Oh? How so?" Tevos questioned.

"Well, a theory of probability suggests that anything is possible in the universe. Kind of like throwing your clothes in the washing machine and turning it on, do it enough times and eventually you'll open it and find that all your clothes are folded neatly in the machine, colour coded too as well." Levi said.

"I am over eight hundred years old and never have I seen or heard of anything like that happening." Tevos replied sceptically.

"Well, the universe is a big place. Chances are that some very lucky alien will open their washing machine and find out they don't have to do any folding to put it away. Hell it could happen to you tomorrow or it could happen in twenty billion years from now or it might never happen, the only certainty is that it is possible for it to happen." Levi explained further. They all continued to talk about various things, from cultures to odd quirks to literature and sport. Tom, Mel and Levi also learnt more about the formation of the Citadel Council and the struggles the early council faced. Tom also spoke of the many wars humans had waged during their history.

"Personally my greatest military hero is Admiral Nelson. Don't really know why but when I was little I was fascinated with his his exploits. He was considered one of my nations greatest heroes. I mean sure there were others throughout history but Nelson's actions were... inspirational I guess, when the world is flooding I guess you look up to old masters of the seas. Or at least I did." Tom said before going on to explain why Admiral Nelson was considered a hero, in the end though, he had said, it's all a matter of personal preference on who is really considered a hero. All three humans had different people they had looked up to from their history, they explained a little about each one and then Tevos did the same, recalling old memories from her early years.

After several hours of talking Tom decided it was time to take his leave. When he returned the next 'day' he would find out just what would happen to humanity, would they be allowed to settle the beautiful red and silver world or would they be taken some place else and be forced to wait even longer before they could restart their civilisation?


End file.
